Who are these guys? Academics, maybe. They have that studious look, and college academics to boot. Women have been teaching in elementary and high schools since the 19th century, but all-male faculties? Considering this photo looks like it's from the thirties or forties, an all-male faculty screams university. But then again, maybe these are businessmen of some kind. The writing on the blackboard is difficult to make out, but the word "plant" can be read, and a few dollar signs as well.
Written on the back, "Jan 15, 71. St Therese, Quebec. Darlene & friend of Darlene, Jo-anne & Daddy." Well, I guess a white January rather than a white Christmas. Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec, is a suburb of Montreal, population 26,533 as of the 2021 census. It's also the snowblower capital of the world. Manufacturing, not ownership. Are they skating on the local hockey rink?
I know nothing about this photo. For all I know, it's a picture of three people at a church conference. Still, it, at least to me, has a 1970s cocaine fueled party feel to it. The sort of past people hide from their children. Why, when I was your age, I stayed home and read the Bible. I didn't drink or use drugs.
More often than not, there really isn't much research that can be done on the old photos in my collection. But every once in a while, there are things I can look into. With the gothic style lettering on the building and the style of architecture, I was sure this photo must have been taken in Germany, but then I went to Google Translate and typed in Raadskelde and it came up as Dutch, and the meaning, council cellar. Then, after scanning the picture, and blowing it up a bit, it looked like there might be an extra letter at the end. So, I started typing different possibilities, and Raadskelder was the only word that worked. Again, it translated as council cellar, but this time in Afrikaans. I suppose that makes sense. After all, Afrikaans is a Dutch dialect. So, was this picture taken in the Netherlands, or South Africa?
I don't know when or where this photo was taken, but if I were to guess, I would say World War 1. The helmets don't look like the flat type worn by the U.S. or British armies. I think, though I'm not sure, these are French troops.
Okay. I admit it. I have no idea if this photo was taken on a farm. But the out-of-focus background doesn't show any other houses, so it was taken somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, and since America was far more rural when this picture was made than it is now, a farm is a reasonable guess.
Not the United States Navy. At least I don't think so. The formal, white uniform makes me think passenger ship.
It's a character flaw of my generation. We Baby Boomers think the world began with us. We had cars and cheap air travel, so we assume we were the first generation to really travel. We weren't, and I'm always amazed at how much earlier generations roamed the world. I have no idea where this picture was taken, but it sure as hell wasn't Pittsburgh.
Well, maybe not angry. Perhaps glum would be a better description. One of the things I've noticed in my years of collecting old photographs is that in older photos, many people don't know how to pose. They are often stiff and rarely show emotion. How to pose must be a learned skill.
